


I Am Always Okay

by Pink_Polenta



Series: Dramatic lazytown series [1]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Dark, Drama was attempted, Gen, Niko has no life, Nine is a dick, Or Crack, THIS IS NOT A FUNNY FIC, Written in a week, child Robbie, regular updates, smol Robbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-22 23:36:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11977497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_Polenta/pseuds/Pink_Polenta
Summary: It was a moderately sunny day in autumn when everything fell apart for young Robbie. He didn’t know it at the time, but this was the day that changed the course of his life forever and not in a good way.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Just for full disclosure, the author's (Niko) first language isn't English. Neither is the Beta reader's. Also, Word was nice enough to help. As a fair warning, the story is going to get quite dark, some non-graphic mental abuse is coming at some points. Especially dark chapters will have notes before them.

It was a moderately sunny day in autumn when everything fell apart for young Robbie. He didn’t know it at the time, but this was the day that changed the course of his life forever and not in a good way. Robbie hadn’t been very old, only five in fact. He remembered the day very well, maybe it was because of its importance. He had been wearing Bordeaux shorts, a lavender shirt, and a purple jacket. His hair had been down and in messy curls as his mother hadn’t had energy that morning to comb it into something neater. Not that she ever had the energy for that in the morning, she always stayed up very late. The fact that Richie kept her up at night as well with his cries didn’t help either. He hadn’t seen his father since the divorce, so he couldn’t ask him either. Robbie would have asked his older brother, Glanni, but he had gone with their father. He mostly just took care of himself really. He had gone out, though sometimes he wishes he hadn’t. Not that would have changed the chain of events that followed the thing that happened that day, but Robbie always feels like it would have made things different.

It had been about noon and all the other children were at school when it happened. He had been sitting on a swing, licking a lolly, and generally minding his own business when the playground he was in was cast over by an odd shadow. He looked up, with an interest only a child can produce, and had his jaw fall wide open because of what was above him. There was a giant airship hovering high in the sky. As he was looking at it a ladder fell down from it, not much later a small man appeared to be climbing down from it. Well, he only seemed small from so far away, but as he neared the ground it became clear he was an adult. Not a tall adult, but an adult nonetheless. Robbie had a small frown on his face as he studied the man climbing down. He was... Well... Rather yellow. Robbie’s nose wiggled as he took in the man’s ensemble, it wasn’t very fashionable. Even at this young age Robbie noticed those things, it was way too yellow. It didn’t stop at the over usage of yellow however, the man seemed to be wearing a leather vest with abs on it and a yellow hat with something hanging from its tip and a pair of goggles on top of it. He was also wearing brown leather boots that reached just below his knees and on his back, he was carrying a bag. Mister Yellow also sported some facial hair, but he was too far away for Robbie to properly judge his styling of said facial hair. 

The stranger had now reached the ground, and once he let go of the ladder it disappeared back into the airship. Robbie watched it go up in awe. The man did a somersault onto one of the lower walls and put his fists into his hips. Robbie’s eyes were wide in amazement, but he did not stand up to greet the stranger. He was a rather shy fellow, so instead he just continued watching and licking his lollipop. It wasn’t often that one saw strangers in Lazytown, and this man already looked like he belonged there. He emanated an aura of confidence and strength that no one would question him. The man jumped off the wall with a double screw and flipped over to the mailbox. With his back turned to Robbie, the boy could see that the man was also wearing a short scarf. Once the man reached the mailbox he opened the bag and emptied it of its contents. Robbie frowned as he watched the man attach some sort of tube and lever to the mailbox. That was kind of rude, the man had only just arrived and he was already changing pieces of public property. Shouldn’t he talk to the mayor before doing such things? Once mister Yellow had finished his little job he flipped and flopped back to the wall. At this point, Robbie really couldn’t be bothered anymore to name the type of flips and flops in his head, there were just too many. Couldn’t this man walk in a straight line?

Robbie was so caught up in his inner monologue about the man’s inability to walk like a normal person that he hadn’t noticed said man approaching him. Once Robbie noticed this he lowered his lollipop. Even though the man wasn’t very tall, he still towered over Robbie as he stood beside the boy. That same grin was still plastered on his face as he dropped himself on one knee. The fact that they were now about the same height did not help to calm Robbie’s nerves. His parents never paid him much mind and neither did any of the other adults, so it was very uncomfortable for Robbie to be the centre of an adult’s attention. Robbie had trouble keeping eye contact with the stranger, his eyes kept shooting at the sky and the floor, as he bit his lower lip. The few times he did look at the man he finally took in his facial hair. It was only a moustache that was styled to be as straight as possible, but it drooped a little at the ends. Robbie could now also see the man’s hair colour, which was light brown, and his eye colour, which was blue.  
“Hello there, boy!” His voice sounded happy, but also authoritative, and it didn’t help to make Robbie more comfortable.  
“My name is Sportacus, or Nine.” He points at a number nine on his leather vest as he continues to smile at Robbie. Robbie instantly decides to just call him Nine, as Sportacus is a weird name.  
“What is your name?” Robbie opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, probably looking like a goldfish. In a small town like Lazytown everyone knew everyone, so introductions were a rarity. He tried to remember what he was supposed to do in a situation like this. Once he remembered he extended a shaky hand in Nine’s direction and the words leaving his mouth were practically a whisper.  
“I’m Robbie.”  
“Nice to meet you, Robbie.”  
“Nice to meet you too, sir.” That unending smile was really starting to unnerve Robbie to a point he could no longer look at it. He subconsciously decided to take comfort in his lollipop. Robbie hid his face behind it and licked it once. No sooner had he done this or the lollipop was out of his hand and on the ground, and his hand was stinging. He looked at Nine with wide eyes as the realisation that the man had just hit the lollipop out of his hand dawned upon him.  
“Things are going to change, Robbie.” Nine said this with the same big smile on his face, a smile Robbie soon learnt to fear.


	2. Chapter 1

After their introduction Nine didn’t do what Robbie expected him to do. Robbie was often left on his own, sometimes speaking to people for short moments, but otherwise he was alone. He didn’t expect the man to invite him to play a game with him. Robbie had declined, he didn’t really know how to play games and he also didn’t really feel like it. Nine kept insisting on that they would play though, and Robbie kept resisting just as hard. He didn’t know this man, and he didn’t really want to play with the person who had just slapped his lollipop out of his hand. Persistence was the name of the game, and eventually Nine just dragged Robbie to the sports field by his wrist. Nine suggested many things to play, but Robbie declined all of them. He hadn’t even wanted to go to the sports field in the first place, never mind doing sports. As Robbie declined everything, Nine eventually chose which sport they were going to play. Robbie frowned at the adult blatantly ignoring Robbie’s wish of not doing any sports at all. While still smiling, it was getting kind of creepy now, Nine decided that they would play soccer. It was, after all, a game that was easily playable with smaller children.

After a while Robbie realised that it wasn’t all that bad after all. Nine showed patience with him when he didn’t know the rules or kicked the ball very badly. He was encouraging and a nice teacher. It wasn’t at all like the few times Robbie had tried to join the other kids, they would laugh at his clumsiness and call him stupid for not knowing the rules. Robbie found himself laughing as he and Nine kicked the ball back and forth. More giggles erupted from his mouth when Nine stood on his hands and started playing upside down, it was just so silly to Robbie. This encouraged Nine to do more crazy stunts before kicking the ball back to Robbie. Robbie didn’t mind though, he wasn’t very good at sport anyhow and all those flips and flops looked really cool. He had pretty much forgotten about the lost lollipop as they were playing together.

A bell like sound ringed and at the same time the little thing at the end of Nine’s hat started to glow. He jumped back to his feet and put his fists on his hips. With a grave voice, he spoke.  
“My help is needed. See you later, Robbie.” And with those words he left Robbie alone on the sports field as he flipped and flopped away.  
“Uh, well, bye.” Robbie knew Nine could no longer hear him, but he said it anyhow. He stood there for a moment before he decided to follow Nine and see what the man had been on about. His run in the general direction Nine had gone to wasn’t nearly as fast, but Robbie hoped he could still catch up. Robbie eventually found Nine again with some of the other locals. He stopped running and breathed heavily. His stamina wasn’t very high and this run combined with the soccer was more exercise than Robbie had done in a whole month. Once he could catch his breath he walked closer and tried to overhear what they were talking about. It didn’t take a lot of listening and looking to figure out what had happened while Robbie was running to catch up. Nine had saved that Zweets girl from a nasty fall and now she and her brother were praising him for his heroics. The man seemed to love the attention he was getting, but he was also trying to stop them. Saying that it was only a small thing and that it didn’t deserve the praise he was getting. It didn’t take long for Nine to notice little Robbie standing nearby and with a big grin on his face he invited the boy to stand closer. Robbie was a little nervous as he never really talked to the Zweets siblings. The girl, Robbie didn’t remember either of their names, was about 10 and her brother was 12. They always said Robbie was much too young to join their games the few times he tried to join (he had quickly given up). They seemed to share his reluctance the be in one another’s presence going from the looks they were giving Robbie. Nine just ignored this and invited them all to play games together. The Zweets siblings looked like they genuinely wanted to play with Nine, though their opinion on Robbie joining them was made clear by their vocal protest (yet again ignored by Nine). Robbie didn’t protest as much as he knew that Nine didn’t take no for an answer and playing with him wasn’t all that bad. Maybe it wasn’t going to be bad now either, even with the Zweets siblings.

Robbie didn’t know whether he should call playtime with Nine and the Zweets siblings a success or not. It had been fun for a little while, when the Zweets siblings tried to give him a chance, but that soon changed and they started nagging Nine about how they couldn’t play properly with Robbie there. Nine decided that Robbie should take a break anyhow as he had been exercising before the Zweets joined them. Neither Robbie or the Zweets siblings saw any problem with this, and Robbie was soon sitting on the swings again. The Zweets siblings were only the first to arrive after the school had gone out. Soon other children joined in the game as more of them were attracted by the noise coming from the sports field.

Robbie was still sitting on the swings, now watching the other children play like he often did. Though normally he wouldn’t be so obvious about it, but he felt that Nine had allowed him to sit where he was sitting. He wished he still had his lollipop, it would be nice to be licking it while watching the other children play. He didn’t even notice Nine sitting down on the swing beside him.  
“Hello, Robbie. Do you want to come play sports with us?” Robbie almost jumped in the air at the unexpected voice. Well, he actually did jump, but he would never admit that to anyone.  
“Uh, I am fine.” He looks at the ground, unable to look Nine in the eyes, and swings his legs back and forth.  
“Come on, Robbie. It will be fun!” Robbie looked up at Nine with a frown, that was the third time that day that he ignored Robbie’s wishes of not joining in the sports and Robbie really, really didn’t want to join now. Some of the kids that had joined used to bully Robbie whenever they saw him. They did not ignore him like the Zweets siblings did, they would actively make him feel miserable. No bullying was ever done with an attentive adult around, but Robbie was sure that if he was close enough and Nine would turn his back that they would make him trip. He shook his head.  
“I don’t want to play with them, they are mean to me.” This only caused Nine to sigh and put a hand on Robbie’s shoulder.  
“It’s okay, I will tell them that that isn’t nice and that we should all play together.” Robbie realised that he wasn’t going to be able to reason with Nine. Even for a five-year-old he wasn’t stupid. Quickly a plan formed in his head, he was going to make sure that he wasn’t going to get tripped behind Nine’s back more than once.  
“Oh, okay.” Nine grinned and took him back to the field. The kids meekly agreed to play nice with Robbie, but they made faces that assured Robbie that they wouldn’t when Nine grinned at the little boy. It didn’t matter, Robbie had a plan. It took a little while before Robbie could enact his plan. He didn’t really care for what Nine would think of it later, the man shouldn’t have pushed him to do things he didn’t want to do. Once Nine had turned his back on Robbie and Robbie was sure that he wouldn’t be missed by the man for a while he sneaked off. The other children did see him go away, but they hadn’t wanted him to join anyhow, so they weren’t going to raise the alarm. When Robbie was sure he couldn’t be seen from the sports field he started to walk normally, his destination was home. Robbie loved watching people, but he really didn’t feel like being made to do even more things.

His wish of no longer being made to do things didn’t come true as the moment he came home little Richie was thrust into his arms by his mother. She told him that she was too tired to take care of Richie right now and that he should take some responsibility in taking care for his little brother. Well, on the bright side, looking after a sleeping baby wasn’t something very active. He laid down his little brother on the sofa as he himself went to work with some of the scrap metal and other random machine parts he had found in the scrapyard. This was one of his favourite activities beside watching people. He thought he was pretty good at it, the things might not look pretty, but the parts moved like they should. He had been able to make a little wagon for Richie, so that Robbie could move him around. Richie might have been small, but Robbie was small as well, so Richie was too heavy for Robbie to carry around. With the cart Robbie could move him around, the cart could even climb stairs. Right now, Robbie was working on something to get back at his bullies, it would be a machine that could make people trip from a distance. Robbie worked on this until it was dinner time, only interruptions being feeding times and diaper changes for Richie. He made something for himself and drove Richie to his crib.  
“Goodnight, Richie.” Silence was his only answer, as Richie had been asleep all along. With a wary sight Robbie readied himself for bed, the first day with Nine in his life had ended.


	3. Chapter 2

The months following the arrival of Nine had been different, but soon this different became the new normal as Nine made his home in Lazytown. Things had changed, and Robbie, unlike many others, didn’t know if it was for the better. Both kids and adults now partook in many more outside activities, causing a lot of noise and making it near impossible for Robbie to walk the streets without bumping into anyone. Robbie liked being outside, but he disliked having to talk to people. It didn’t help with getting Richie to do his naps either, as the noises kept distracting him into awakeness. Also, it had become near impossible to walk around with candy. Either Nine himself would take it away from you or someone quoting his words would do his job for him. Candy was bad for you, you should eat sportscandy instead.

Robbie thought it was stupid, why couldn’t he have both? This meant that Robbie now had to squirrel all his candy at home and that he would eat sportscandy outside. Richie pretty much ate anything in front of him if it was mushy enough. So, Robbie’s younger brother wasn’t really complaining, not that he knew enough words to do so. Most of the care for Richie had now befallen upon Robbie. He didn’t really mind though, as it meant that he had a good reason for not joining in on sports. Nine accepted the excuse, but Robbie could see that he wasn’t happy about it. Well, Robbie wasn’t happy about being forced to do sports all the time so Nine could deal with it. On a side note, Robbie’s tripping machine had done its job brilliantly until Nine found it and ruined Robbie’s fun. It had been tripping up people on Robbie’s command for a whole week before Nine had been able to locate the machine.

Richie and Robbie were sitting in the park together. Robbie was munching on an apple with a frown on his face as Richie found great amusement by throwing leaves around. They didn’t have many toys of their own, so they had to make do with what they found around them. Richie could now sit upright on his own and even stand when leaning on Robbie. His laughs and smiles were the best part of Robbie’s days. Who wouldn’t like it when their little brother and best friend laughed and smiled? Robbie liked talking to Richie as Richie would never tell him that he was stupid or say any other mean things like the other kids did. Not that Richie could say much of anything, but Robbie was sure that he wouldn’t if he could. The boy was very sure that Richie loved him just as much as he loved him. Robbie snickered as Richie threw a leaf in his face. His snickering was interrupted by a ‘Hey, Robbie’ coming from behind him. He turned around to see Nine jogging towards him with a grin on his face. Said grin lessened and his jog slowed to a halt when Nine saw that Richie was with Robbie. Nine sighed and made the last few steps towards Robbie before kneeling in front of him. Robbie already knew what was coming and he rolled his eyes.  
“You really need some time for yourself, Robbie. It isn’t good that you always have to look after your little brother.” He sounded sympathetic and concerned.  
“Well, I like looking after him, so! And mom is too busy.” Nine just sighed again and tried to ruffle Robbie’s hair. Robbie moved out of the way from the hand and glared at it. His hair was messy enough as it was, Nine didn’t need to make it worse.  
“Maybe we can find someone else to babysit Richie one day, okay?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Robbie, you should answer in full sentences.” This made Robbie just glare more at him. Nine wasn’t his father. Not that he had seen his father in a long time, but that was beside the point. His mother often responded to Robbie’s questions with just a ‘yeah’ which in Robbie’s mind meant he should be allowed to do so as well.  
“Yes, sir.” He only really corrected himself because he knew that if he wouldn’t Nine would just stay with him and wait till he did. After this Nine nodded and patted his shoulder before standing up straight again. This caused Robbie to almost fall over. For all his flips, flops, and other tricks, it seemed that Nine didn’t know his own strength. Nine then jogged off with a wave and a smile in Robbie’s direction.  
“See you later, Robbie.”  
“Bye, Nine.” Others had taken to calling Nine Sportacus, but Robbie still thought it was a stupid name. Conversations like these happened all the time between Robbie and Nine, neither of them allowing the other to win the conversation by giving in. Richie threw some more leaves at Robbie to regain his attention. Robbie thought that Richie probably had enjoyed the vibrant yellow colour Nine was wearing, but now that he was gone he had started throwing leaves again. Robbie wouldn’t allow himself to even consider the fact that Richie didn’t dislike Nine as much as he did.

As it was getting close to lunchtime, Robbie decided it was time for him and Richie to go home to eat. Maybe he would even treat himself to the piece of cake he had bought. Robbie had a way for getting money which was rather atypical, even he himself understood that. Once a month a check would arrive through the mail and it would always be a race whether he or his mother would get it first. If he got it first it would be a good month in which he could also build up his money reserve for when his mother got the check first. His mother would spend all the money on her gambling while Robbie used it for food and sometimes even clothing. This month Robbie had been first, so he had bought himself a piece of cake to congratulate himself. Because Robbie was pondering about whether he was or wasn’t going to eat the cake and if he should share some of it with Richie, he didn’t notice that he was in the middle of the street and that a car was coming straight at his brother and him.

They were lucky that Nine’s crystal went off so that he could save them before they got hit. Not that Robbie liked how they were saved, he really wished Nine could be a little less over the top. He and his little brother were launched into the air by a baseball hitting the porthole cover they were walking over. While in the air Robbie watched how Nine flipped and flopped onto the car that had been approaching them. Being on top of the car gave Nine the perfect position to catch both Robbie and Richie when they started to descend. Nine had one of those grins on his face that annoyed Robbie when he had them safely in his arms. Then he jumped off the car that had almost hit the two boys. The driver of the car had stopped and walked over to them, apologising profusely.  
“Robbie, you can stop screaming now.” Robbie shut his mouth immediately, he hadn’t even noticed that he had been screaming. Shrieks of terror could still be heard and Robbie turned to look at Richie who was too young to understand what had just happened and that everything was okay now.  
“I’m okay, we’re okay.”  
“Of course, you are okay, you will always be okay.” Robbie frowned, yeah, he knew that Nine would always be there to save the day, but he didn’t need to rub it in.  
“Thanks...” Could Nine put him down now? He really needed to see if the cart was alright and he wanted to comfort Richie. Richie wasn’t screaming as loud as he was before, but he was still in distress. Robbie patted Richie from where he was in Nine’s arms, but he couldn’t hug his little brother like this. Richie leaned towards him and grabbed his hand, but Nine ignored the clear signs that the two boys wanted to be closer together and kept holding them. In the short while they had been in Nine’s arms a small group of people had surrounded them, congratulating and praising Nine for his daring rescue. Robbie rolled his eyes when Nine told everyone about how sad it was that a five-year-old had to look after a baby and that he had no time to play with the other kids because of it. Robbie was almost six! He could take care of himself and Richie just fine. Because of this someone offered to babysit Richie for the rest of the day. Robbie kept in a growl while he answered.  
“It’s lunchtime, Richie needs his baby food.” The adults seemed to understand this, but that only meant that they would take care of that. Robbie’s argument that he also needed to go home for lunch didn’t do much good either as this meant that Nine invited him to eat a healthy lunch with the rest of the kids. Well, it seemed that Robbie no longer needed to contemplate whether he was going to eat that piece of cake that day or not. The cart was also taken care of. It was broken, but it would be brought to his home by another adult so he could fix it after he was done playing with the other children. Robbie glared and wiggled his nose as he watched someone take Richie from Nine and walk away with him. Richie didn’t seem all too happy about being separated from his brother, something that brought a small smile to Robbie’s face. At least someone wanted to be with him more than anyone else. Nine then kept Robbie in his arms for the duration of their walk back to the sports field. There he was put on the ground, but for a moment Nine leant in really close and whispered in Robbie’s ear.  
“This time there will be no running away when I turn my back to you, understood?”


	4. Chapter 3

Robbie had reached new levels of annoyed. Because of Nine’s fight for healthy food and him practically banning candy, the local grocery store started to store less and less of the stuff. People were just not buying it as much as they used to and the lack of sugary things was driving Robbie up the wall. It was bad enough that he could only eat sweets at home, but at this rate he wouldn’t be able to even buy the stuff at all soon. The bakery was also storing fewer cakes, and the cakes that were there were all healthy. Robbie grumbled as he kicked a rock in front of the grocer’s. What was he supposed to do, make them himself? Well that wasn’t too bad of an idea. If he knew how to make cake and candy, then he could make it as unhealthy as he wanted and nothing Nine could do would stop him. He was a genius! He grinned as he made his way to the bookstore to get a cooking book.

 

* * *

 

Robbie watched from a street corner as Nine saved the day again. Richie was beside him in his cart, something he was starting to outgrow. Robbie really needed to either make it bigger or make a new one that was bigger. Richie still couldn’t walk big distances on his own or walk quickly enough to keep up with Robbie and Robbie was still too small to carry him.

Robbie rolled his eyes as he watched people congratulating Nine on his daring rescue. In Robbie’s opinion, it had been way over the top and Nine could have easily saved them in a quicker and less complicated way. Not that anyone would listen to Robbie about those matters though, people had started to notice that Robbie didn’t like Nine much. This didn’t help at all with Robbie’s already abysmal popularity in Lazytown, as everyone beside him seemed to love the yellow circus act. The adults would tut at him and the other children became more vicious in their bullying. Nine didn’t even stop them, instead he told Robbie that if he listened to him that it would stop. Robbie wiggled his nose and snarled as he walked away from the sight of Nine gloating in the praise of the town hero worshipping him.

 

* * *

 

Cake baking was actually pretty fun, but it took a long while and Robbie rarely had the patience to do it. Robbie had at least become good enough at it that both him and Richie could enjoy consuming the finished product. Ideas of more complicated cakes with frosting and decorations were already starting to form in Robbie’s head, but he decided that he first had to become a complete master of making the basic cake before he could start doing more complicated things while baking. He still believed he had become a pretty good baker in the past couple of months.

The candy making was not as much of a success. Robbie hadn’t realised how complicated doing something like making sweets could be. It was already hard to find recipes on how to do it at all, but then doing it was another level of difficulty entirely. Robbie sighed and sat on the kitchen floor. He stared at Richie merrily riding his cart around the room while deep in thought. There had to be a way for him to supply himself with candy while the grocery store was selling it less and less. He really needed a solution, what if the store would stop selling it entirely? Robbie couldn’t have himself or Richie growing up without the sweet taste of candy. Consuming pure sugar would still be an option, but it wouldn’t be the same.

Then it suddenly hit him, the cart! If Robbie could build a cart in which Richie could move around, maybe he could build a machine that would make candy for him. He couldn’t contain his laughter as he thought of all the possibilities. He had proven again that he was a genius. He jumped up and ran to his room where he hoarded all his metal parts and tools. Richie followed him in his cart, albeit a lot slower.

 

* * *

 

Robbie squinted and scrunched his nose at the current activity Nine was doing with the local kids. He was teaching them acrobatics and it didn’t look particularly safe to Robbie to let a nine-year-old attempt to do flips. Especially with such a large group. Robbie had been able to skip joining in because he was playing with Richie. They were playing soccer, though when you play with someone who hasn’t reached the age of two yet it isn’t really that exerting. It was more a kicking the ball back and forth gently than any real game. Although he himself wasn’t very amused with the game, Richie seemed to love it, which was all Robbie really needed. Robbie did think it was infinitely better than attempting to do a somersault or pretend he wanted to learn how to walk on his hands. He distractedly munched on an apple while kicking the ball back to Richie. The apple wasn’t even a real apple and Robbie grinned at that thought. He had succeeded into making a candy machine and because he was so brilliant he even made the candies look like apples. Robbie was pretty sure he was the smartest six-year-old in the world. His head turned towards Nine and his gaggle of annoying children when his crystal went off. This had been happening a lot today, as the kids were getting in all kind of trouble by attempting acrobatics. The fact that they had been saved many times that day did not deter them from praising Nine, something that he liked a lot. It almost seemed he chose a dangerous sport like acrobatics on purpose.

 

* * *

 

Today was a good day. Robbie had been able to escape Nine entirely that morning and with a backpack full of food and drink he and Richie had made it to the Lazyforest without anyone seeing them go. Robbie was grinning and Richie had caught onto the good mood and he was either babbling nonsensically or saying one of the few words he could say. Richie being happy and talkative only made Robbie happier. He hadn’t been this happy in a long time, even before Nine showed up. He had missed his older brother, who would now only send an occasional letter, and he had felt lonely even with Richie for company.

But that was not now, now he was happily skipping circles around Richie and his cart. Once they reached a small patch of grass in the forest Robbie clumsily spread a blanket over the ground and put his bag on it. He had to stop Richie from riding his cart on top of the blanket, but once that was solved they both happily sat down on the blanket. Robbie laid down with his hands underneath his head while Richie crawled to the side to play with some sticks. Robbie closed his eyes and just listened to Richie’s happy stick tinkering. He absorbed the sun’s rays on his pale skin until Richie suddenly became quiet. Robbie propped himself up on his elbows as he opened his eyes to see why Richie had suddenly stopped what he was doing. His worries quickly melted away as it turned out that Richie had spotted a bird nearby and was now intensely staring at it. The bird tweeted and flew away, Richie following its movements with a smile and a giggle. For one day, everything seemed to be okay.

 

* * *

 

It was pretty early in the morning when there was a knock on the front door. Robbie wiggled his nose, but didn’t go to open it. No one ever really visited their home except for loan sharks and other people Robbie’s mother owed money to. They were never there for Robbie so it wasn’t his job to open the door. Robbie had stopped covering for his mother a while ago, now his top priority was Richie. He hauled Richie out of the bathtub, as Robbie had been giving him a wash, and started to dry his little brother with a towel. His mother wasn’t responding to the knocking either, so the person would probably go away soon. They always went away after a while. Mother might not pay them, but once she had frantically called Robbie’s dad they would be gone for a while.

This, however, didn’t happen. Instead the knocking continued, in how much trouble was his mother now? Once Richie was properly dressed and Robbie looked somewhat presentable too, the elder of the two boys made his way to the front door to open it for the continuous knocker. He opened expecting to see some stranger asking for his mom, but what he saw scared him more. His mostly bored look with a little bit of annoyance morphed into one of fright and confusion. What was Nine doing knocking on his front door? Nine grinned and crouched down in front of him.

“Hey there, Robbie, I need to talk to your mother.” Robbie doesn’t even have time to properly answer that as Nine walks past him into the house. Before following him, Robbie closes the door and wiggles his nose nervously. He watches his mother and Nine converse. Oh, God no. He is convincing her to take responsibility for Richie, which would make Robbie free to play games with Nine and the other children. Robbie shook like a leaf as he saw his mother give in all too easily. This would be horrid in two ways, one, Robbie had to play with Nine and the other kids, and two, Richie would have a shit day as their mom would forget about him most of the time. For all his brainpower Robbie couldn’t think of a way to avoid what was going to come. He was going to need even better ways to avoid Nine if his own home wasn’t a Nine free zone anymore. With his head hung low he followed Nine as they walked out together, Nine’s hand squeezing a little too hard in his shoulder.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are aware that the GGiL Íþro is nice and we'd like to press that it's only his looks we use for nine and not so much his personality, that said this is the chapter where it gets much darker much faster. Just a heads up.

Life did not get any easier during the time following. In fact, because his house was no longer a safe zone it had only become harder. Life also seemed to become harder for other people, but they didn’t seem to mind like Robbie did. The local kids needed a lot more saving from dangerous situations than they used to. Robbie was getting close to becoming eight when he started to see a pattern in all of it. He saw that most of the situations they needed to be saved from only came to be because of something Nine himself did. He would let them do sports without the proper safety equipment and run across the street as a game. Robbie made a disgusted face as he realised Nine could be doing it on purpose. Nine seemed to love the praise he would get for every single save and more saves meant more praise. Robbie didn’t know he could dislike Nine more than he already did, but it seemed to be possible. Causing people to be in danger just so you could get some praise sounded despicable to little Robbie. Why would anyone want to do such a thing to someone else? Nine was supposed to be the hero, but it looked to Robbie like he was just making their lives worse at this point.

And it would only get worse. Robbie thought that Nine would have learnt his lesson when one of the kids got a little hurt. A rich snobby boy, Sterling Spoilero or something, had managed to bang his head against the wall, hard, during one of their games. He ended up with a slight concussion, but no one seemed to blame Nine for not being there to save him in time. Heroes had flaws too and just couldn’t be everywhere all at once. Well, Robbie could point out another major flaw in Nine and that was that he was an annoying idiot. This accident did result in the amount of dangerous activities becoming less, so that was something. What he hadn’t realised that if it became less bad for the general population, that said general population did not include him. Nine didn’t stop with his faux savings, but instead of putting all the kids in danger, he just put Robbie in it. It didn’t matter for such things that Richie was with Robbie. Richie could be on his own for the few moments that Nine needed to put Robbie in danger and save him from it. Nine would cause him to fall from heights or make him fall into the water while he couldn’t swim.

Robbie tried to hide himself and his little brother from Nine, but their hiding spots became fewer and fewer as the two of them started to outgrow them and Nine started to find some of them. No one besides Richie missed Robbie while Nine set up the fake saves, and no one understood what Richie’s distress was for. Richie would be physically okay so they couldn’t find anything wrong. Richie saw everything, but couldn’t tell anyone. Every time Nine saved Robbie from another dangerous situation they would praise him like the sun shone from his arse. Everyone always said that Robbie should be very thankful that Nine didn’t discriminate. The fact that Robbie very much disliked Nine wasn’t a secret and people always thought it was very nice of Nine that he kept on helping Robbie even though the boy didn't like him. No one would ever take Robbie’s side that Nine should just go away, the town had been fine before he came around. They didn’t believe him either the time he told them the only reason why he was in danger was because Nine had put him there. They would tut at him and shake their heads. It was completely unfair.

The one-time Robbie told the people praising the fake hero that he had only been in danger because of Nine wasn’t only followed by tuts and headshakes. Once Nine was done gloating he walked off with Robbie, forcing him to come with him with a tight hand on his shoulder. Robbie soon became confused as they weren’t walking towards either the sports field or Robbie’s home. They walked for quite a while and only stopped once they were far away from prying eyes. Nine turned Robbie so they were facing each other and for once Robbie had no idea what Nine was going to do. Was he going to berate him for something? Or maybe he was going to set up a more complicated fake save. But then again, Nine never did more than one fake Robbie save a day. Even though Robbie had had no clue what Nine was going to do, what Nine did was still completely unexpected. Nine’s fist made contact with Robbie’s jaw, hard. Robbie stumbled a couple of steps backwards as he looked at Nine’s angry face in shock. Nine had put him in many dangerous situations by this point, but he had never directly hurt him like that. Robbie held his throbbing cheek with his hand as tears started to appear in his eyes.  
“Now listen here, Robbie. You can’t just say things like that.” His voice was menacing, almost a growl. Robbie sniffed before he responded.  
“But it’s the truth!” Nine hit Robbie again, not seeming to care that there would be bruises showing. Robbie shrieked in pain this time and started to cry.  
“No one cares about you. You are always okay, so stop your whining!”  
“And what if you’re too late again and I do get hurt?” Nine responded to this by grabbing Robbie’s shirt and dragging him close.

Nine looked at the young boy intensely before a small smirk appeared on his face.  
“You don’t know, do you? It’s simple, and pretty obvious actually. It should have been so simple even to you. With all your weird little inventions. I know you are smart, very smart even, use those big brains of yours.” He poked Robbie in the forehead, something which made the boy flinch as he was pretty much expecting another punch. Robbie tried to stop his tears by wiping them away, but they kept coming. Nine didn’t seem to mind as he continued his monologue.  
“You never notice how you are different from everybody else? That you aren’t like the rest of the town? It took me a little while to figure it out, but after that it was obvious. I should have guessed earlier to be honest, as you reek of it.” His grin was very condescending at this point, he was obviously enjoying the fact he knew something about Robbie that the boy himself didn’t.  
“Do you really think all of those machines work on technology alone? You should know that something you make without a functioning motor shouldn’t be able to move on its own.” Robbie’s eyes widened. Nine was talking about the cart.  
“Richie’s cart does have a motor!” Nine just rolls his eyes at Robbie’s protest. As if it was the most stupid thing Robbie could say.  
“Yes, but motors need fuel to work and that cart doesn’t have any place to put the fuel. Also, it reacts to Richie in a way it shouldn’t, but that might be just your little brother’s work and not yours.” Robbie just stared, he hadn’t thought about the fact that he never had to fuel the cart’s motor. Which was a pretty stupid design mistake, but the boy had never thought about it because the cart worked perfectly.  
“But but... How?”  
“I am letting you figure that on your own, not going to give the game away even more than I already have. But I guess you got it from your dad, considering your mother is useless really. Also, this little thing that makes you different from all the other people in town causes you not to hurt as easily. If I were ever too late to save you, you would still be okay. Things that hurt normal humans don’t hurt you. Do you understand?” Nine pushed Robbie away, making him fall onto the dirt ground they were standing on. Robbie just watched with wide eyes, clouded by tears, how Nine stood up straight again.  
“Now, remember, no one will ever believe you and you will always be okay.” With those words Nine left Robbie, who was still lying in the dirt.

Robbie didn’t know for how long he just lay in the dirt, looking up at the sky, trying to process what just happened. He had been out of tears for a while and he probably looked a mess. His body ached, but he had to agree with Nine. He never broke any bones and bruises that should have been there often never appeared on his body. He tried to cry at the unfairness of it all, but no tears would come. It was unfair that the fact that he was different meant that Nine could hurt him without it having any physical effects. Physical things he could prove, but without bruises no one would ever believe that Nine hit him. He also tried to cry in anger at his father, if Nine was right that he got this differentness from him, why wasn’t he there to help him, why couldn’t he do more than just pay out the loan sharks? He sat up with balled fists and hugged his knees to his chest. Trying to calm his breathing he forced his brain to think of something else. It only worked partially as his brain hopped from one thing Nine said to something else. Nine said that Robbie put whatever made him different into his inventions and that that was why they worked. What was it that could make things happen that weren’t physically possible? Robbie mused about it for a moment before the thought came to him. Was Nine implying that Robbie could do magic? Magic was the only force the boy could think of that could go against physics and could be hereditary. Well, if he could put magic in machines, couldn’t he use it for other things as well? Maybe he could do things with his magic that would protect himself and Richie, maybe he could stop Nine from hurting him. With newfound determination, the boy stood up and started to walk home.


	6. Chapter 5

Using magic against Nine helped a little. Robbie wasn’t that good at it yet, but it made him and Richie more difficult to find and that was something. They would leave the house very early in the morning, Richie would often still be asleep, and made their way to LazyForest. The Forest was the best hiding spot as it was large and the trees were dense. Also, Richie loved the place as it was full of birds. It was very difficult for Nine to find them there, the only trouble came when Robbie had to go grocery shopping or had other reasons for having to be in town. Then Nine would find him and put him in another dangerous situation. Robbie really started to hate heights, as Nine seemed to love throwing him down from roofs of buildings and other high spots Robbie had no reason to be. It wasn’t like anyone noticed how ridiculous it was.

Robbie sighed as he continued walking, Richie sleepily following him. He only came to a halt when he realised he had reached the edge of the forest. He frowned, he had thought that it would take him a little longer before he would reach the edge. He looked at the abandoned factory in front of him and then at Richie behind him. Soon it would be getting colder and the forest would get cold. Richie and Robbie didn’t have the money to buy fancy winter clothes. As Robbie was looking at the factory again he wondered if there was something there that he could make into a heater. Then Robbie and Richie could hide there when it got too cold. The factory would probably be filled with scrap metal Robbie could use and it also had a roof to protect him from rain, wind, and other weather phenomena. With a determined nod, he made his way over to the place he was going to make his own.

The factory was an old building, but it had enough windows to almost look homey. Well, it would if cleaned up and if there weren’t those weird circular containers next to it. Robbie carefully opened a door, which made a lot of noise. He looked back at Richie, hoping that he hadn’t scared his little brother. He needn’t have worried as Richie seemed more excited about the prospect of discovering a new place.

“This cool! Why we here?” Richie’s English wasn’t the best. It was probably worse than Robbie’s was at his age, but Richie didn’t talk a lot and really only had Robbie to listen to. Robbie wondered if he should make Richie talk more so he could practice. He shook his head, that was something for another time, now he was going to see if this place could be a new hideout for them.

“We are going to make this our place, Richie. It will be our clubhouse!” Robbie grinned at Richie in faux happiness. They had once seen some of the other kids build a clubhouse and Richie had asked him if they could have one too. Richie seemed to not have forgotten this either, something Robbie saw in the way his eyes shone in delight.

“Yay! Cubhouse!” Richie did a little dance of happiness which made a real smile appear on Robbie’s face. He even joined in the little dance as he made his way inside. Standing outside of the cover of anything wasn’t a good idea. Nine could spot them from his airship. He had spotted them a couple of times in the forest and the results had been horrific, in Robbie’s opinion. Nine knew they hid in the forest and would look for them there, but he wouldn’t know anything about the abandoned factory.

The inside of the abandoned factory made both of their eyes lit up in wonder. The Rotten siblings weren’t your usual duo so the spider webs and dirt did not deter them at all. No, they saw the coolness of all the random bibs and bobs that were laying around the place. With twin grins on their faces they started exploring all the nooks and crannies of the building. There were glass tubes leading from the large main room to a smaller room and there were grated balconies everywhere. The factory seemed to be divided in two parts. A larger part where the first room they had entered belonged to which was full of machinery and other factory related things, most of which Robbie didn’t know the uses of. The second smaller part was obviously for some management. There were a few rooms that obviously had been offices once and a kitchen. One of the office rooms was filled with orange furniture, something both Robbie and Richie thought was odd and funny. The furniture was also very fluffy, which sent the two boys into giggle fits. The small kitchen they had found wasn’t in working order, but Robbie was pretty sure he could fix that. He was also pretty sure he could turn one of the offices into a bathroom **.** The upper rooms had windows in the ceilings, giving one a pretty view of the sky. Robbie knew they couldn’t use those rooms because Nine would be able to see them from it from his airship, but it was still cool. If they cleaned all the lower rooms they could pretty much live in the factory. Oh… That was an idea. If they lived here Nine wouldn’t be able to drag them out of their beds and into either dangerous situations or playing with the other children. They could sleep in for however long they wanted, except for check day. They could sleep till noon and no one would be stopping them. Robbie giggled at the idea as he told Richie about it. Richie loved the idea of living in their ‘clubhouse’. Richie had even less connection to their mom and he couldn’t even remember what their elder brother and father looked like.

Protecting Richie had become more and more important to Robbie as in the recent months Nine had also taken an interest in Richie. Robbie reasoned that if Richie never went into town, Nine wouldn’t be able to hurt him and if they lived in the abandoned factory, only Robbie would ever have to go in town for anything. They just needed to clean this all up. That made both of them a lot less enthusiastic as it would involve work and physical exertion, but it would be worth the hassle. Without further ado, they started to clear the main room.

The cleaning took a while, but it wasn’t as boring once they made a game out of it and made up a cleaning song. Robbie also found a way to use his magic to make everything easier, this and the prospect of having a safe space made both of them very happy indeed. Once they had cleared the biggest room they chose the fluffiest orange chair, a small carpet, a coffee table, and a lamp to place in the main room. Together they sat down on the chair to inspect their work. The room was now spotless and rather empty. Robbie wondered what he could put in the glass tubes and how they worked, it was obvious they were some sort of transport tubes. Well, at least it was obvious to him, it seemed that Richie had no clue what they were for. He just thought they looked pretty, probably. They would still have to go back to the town for dinner, but Robbie was already loudly explaining his plan on how he would take everything they would need with them to their clubhouse and how they would live there from now on. Together they also discussed how they were going to use the rest of the rooms. Robbie did do most of the planning and the talking.

They were both going to have their own bedrooms and there would be a special room where Robbie could make them new clothes and work on his machines. Robbie was hit by another idea as he was talking. He could use the room the tubes went to for the clothing and display the outfits in the main room. Robbie would also get one of the larger rooms as his bedroom as he was the bigger one of the two. This made Richie whine because he didn’t want to sleep in another room than the one Robbie slept in, not because he wanted the bigger one for himself. It would be the best clubhouse ever, but Richie had to promise he wouldn’t tell anyone about it. For as long as they both kept quiet about it, it would be their safe heaven.


	7. Chapter 6

The ‘clubhouse’ they had worked like magic. Nine hadn’t been able to find them inside it in months. He had been able to get Robbie a few times while he was outside, but the abandoned factory was theirs and theirs alone. Robbie used a spyglass to see whether Nine was in his airship on the lookout and if he wasn’t, then and only then would they leave the factory. It worked like a charm and Nine seemed to be none the wiser. He just seemed very frustrated, which although could mean that Nine would hit Robbie to out his frustrations, it also made Robbie giggle in glee. He and Richie had also been able to clean some of the other rooms and decorate them with orange furniture. It had been a good few months for them.

 

* * *

 

Robbie was running down the streets of Lazytown. It was early yet and even Nine wouldn’t be awake at this hour. So, at this moment speed was more important than stealth. The sky was clear, but it was still cold. It was the time of the month again in which Robbie tried to get his father’s money letter before his mother did. She was starting to get up earlier as well if she remembered what day it was. The booze wasn’t really helping her gambling problem, it was only causing her to become even less capable of looking after herself or anything, or anyone, else. Robbie generally just stopped the mailman before he even reached his mother’s home, it wasn’t his anymore, but sometimes he overslept and his mother still got the money. Today seemed to be a good one as Robbie saw the mailman as they both neared the house. As usual the mailman greeted Robbie with a smile. The guy was one of the few people in Lazytown that Robbie didn’t mind. He was kind and one of the few people who didn’t look down on him because he disliked Nine. His name was Milford and he was in his early twenties. Robbie had actually talked to him once or twice and had remembered the man wanted to go into politics. Well, he knew who he was going to vote for if he was ever going to go for mayor and Robbie was old enough to vote. Milford the mailman gave him the letter from his father and then left for the next home with a smile and a wave to Robbie.

Robbie put the letter in his pocket with a small smile and made his way towards the bank to get himself the money from the cheque inside the letter. A shadow fell over him and he blinked in confusion, there had been no clouds in the sky at all this morning, how could one be blocking out the sun? He turned around and once he saw what was blocking out the sun he wanted to cry. Nine was both literally and figuratively blocking out the sun. It had been such a good day at that moment, why did Nine have to come take that all away?  
“Good morning, Robbie. What a surprise to see you this early in the morning.” The smirk he had on his face promised no good for Robbie in the near future.  
“Let’s go have some fun together before everyone else wakes up.” Robbie whimpered and Nine grabbed his wrist and pulled him to God knows where.

While he was pulling Robbie along the street he started talking about what he was going to do.  
“See that building over there?” Nine points at a building two blocks away. Robbie nodded, it was the tallest building in town, it was hard to miss.  
“You are going to ‘climb’ on top of that building, because you like the rush.” Robbie didn’t like adrenaline rushes, but he wasn’t going to correct Nine on that, it was useless to try.  
“Once you are on top of that building, you are going to try and skateboard on top of it.” He made some weird motions with his hand that were probably supposed to mime Robbie skating on top of a roof, but to Robbie it just looked like random hand movements.  
“I don’t have a skateboard.” Robbie knew that it had been a stupid thing to mention to begin with, but Nine’s smirk only confirmed that it was.  
“I am prepared for that. It has been a long time since we have played hero and damsel in distress.” He smirked and from one of the bushes they walked past he pulled a skateboard. Robbie was kind of surprised that there had been a skateboard there.

“What is going on here?” Both of them stopped walking to look up at the new voice. It was Milford the mailman. Had he heard what Nine said? Was someone finally going to take Robbie’s side in this?  
“Nothing is going on here, Milford. I was just helping Robbie on his way home.” Nine had gone from his mean face, which Robbie called his true face, to the nice face he wore around everyone else in less than a second. Milford shook his head at this.  
“I heard what you said. What are you doing? Putting Robbie on a roof with a skateboard?” Robbie’s eyes widened, Milford had overheard the conversation.  
“I was just joking, Milford. Just continue with your route.” Milford huffed.  
“That is not something you should joke about. And let go of his wrist, at this rate you will cause bruises.” Nine was so in shock of anyone speaking up to him, especially someone with a gentle nature like Milford, that Robbie could pull himself free and run to hide behind the mailman.

“You- You should not put someone in danger on purpose! You should be ashamed of yourself. You are supposed to look after us and help us. It seems Robbie was right to distrust you.” Nine’s face contorted in anger and he let out a snarl.  
“Don’t tell me how to do my job! I am the hero of this town, everyone adores me.”  
“I am going to tell everyone about this, mark my words. They might not believe a child, but they know I never lie. Let’s see how much they adore you then. You will be driven out of town for child endangerment.” Robbie had expected and hoped that Nine might fear this, but instead he smirked. How could Nine still seem so confident while faced with such a threat?  
“I don’t think so.” Without giving Milford or Robbie any time to react, Nine shot forwards and grabbed Milford’s head. Something that Robbie could only describe as magic electricity erupted from Nine’s hands and into Milford’s head while Milford screamed silently. The colour of it was yellow and the brightness of it hurt Robbie’s eyes and everything suddenly smelled like cleaning products. Robbie didn’t know what to do and in his panic, he ran away, crying all the way back to the abandoned factory. 

 

* * *

 

 

Curled on the fluffy orange chair Robbie cried. Richie was sniffing as well, Robbie hadn’t been able to tell him what happened yet, but he was sad because Robbie was sad. Eventually Richie managed to climb up the chair as well and hugged Robbie tightly.  
“What happen, Robbie?” Robbie tried to brush the tears away and snorted before hugging Richie back.  
“Mailman Milford tried to help me with Nine, but now Nine has hurt him. Don’t tell anyone, okay?” Richie nodded silently, the secret would be safe with him. The little five-year-old looked at his brother in concern, he didn’t like it when his elder brother was sad. He hopped of the chair again and Robbie watched him go. What was his little brother planning? He didn’t have to wait too long before Richie returned. He was carrying a piece of cake, probably thinking that cake always made Robbie feel better and he was pretty right about that. Robbie couldn’t help but let a small smile appear on his face as Richie offered the cake to him. The cake was lying on its side and it was obvious that Richie had dropped it at least once before getting it on the plate. He had also forgotten to bring either a spoon or a fork with him, but it was the thought that counted. Robbie took the plate with a ‘thanks’ and put it on the coffee table beside him. Then he helped his brother back onto the sofa. They were going to eat the cake together. Richie seemed delighted with the fact that they were going to share the cake.

After they finished the cake they cuddled together in silence, a silence that was eventually broken by a frustrated groan from Robbie.  
“I can’t let Nine take over Lazytown. It is our town, from us and mailman Milford! He is an outsider and should just go away. But we are the only ones who know he should go away.” he petted Richie while he thought about this problem.  
“What... What if I make him go away? Chase him out of town. I mean, it will be hard, but there must be a way to force him to leave.” He scratched his chin in thought. This was going to require some planning.


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gets somewhat darker again, a bit like chapter 4

In the following years Robbie had many plans for driving Nine out of town. They all failed, but some got further than others. Robbie was only a child and his opponent was many years older. It generally went like this; he would have a plan which he would tell his little brother. Richie would either nod or shake his head for whether he think it was a good plan or not and then he would promise not to tell anyone about what Robbie had planned. The plans had been becoming a little more successful once Robbie figured out how to enchant his clothing so that no one would recognise him. They were perfect disguises until he would lose part of them. Robbie also made many inventions to fight Nine with, but again and again he failed to beat his foe. Sometimes it wasn’t even Nine that put him down, the other LazyTowners also fought against him. They had no idea that Robbie wasn’t the real bad guy. Milford had known, but he had forgotten. Ever since Nine had zapped his brain, or whatever he had done, Milford forgot a lot of things. He was now known as a nice airhead, but it still disappointed that the only one who had known had been forced to forget. Robbie was still sure that if he kept on improving that he would one day beat Nine and make him leave. The town would be Robbie’s again. It had been a slow improvement in the last three years, but it had been improvement nonetheless.   


 

* * *

  
Robbie and Richie were all cuddled together in the large orange bed. Robbie had been busy planning a new attack on Nine all day, he was sure it was ready to put into action the next day. He would need a good night’s rest if he wanted to enact his plan the next day. Richie had approved of the plan and wouldn’t be telling anyone else about it. Robbie shifted a little when he heard an odd noise, but he quickly pushed it from his mind. There were quite some rats in this place and it was probably one of them. He closed his eyes again and sighed as he went to sleep. His attempt to sleep was rudely interrupted when he was ripped from the bed by a yet to be seen force. Both he and Richie shrieked in horror. What was going on?   
“Did you really think you could hide from me forever?” A chill went down Robbie’s spine and he bit back a sob. He recognised that voice, it was Nine.   
“It took me three years, but I am nothing if not persistent.” He smirked at Robbie as he held him against the wall. Robbie wanted to cry, but kept it inside. Their home had been found out. It had been their safe space and home for so long now. Well, three years was a long time for a child.   
“I know it was you behind all those attacks, I know it was you who has tried to chase me out of town again and again and again.” He pushed Robbie to the ground and then kicked him.   
“I think it is time for me to teach you why you shouldn’t go against me. It seemed that the last time I did that I wasn’t clear enough.” Robbie curled into a ball and swallowed. This was going to be bad, but as long as Nine was concentrating on him he would leave Richie alone. He didn’t have to wait long for the next kick. He heard another yell as Richie tried to stop Nine from hurting Robbie. Nine threw him off as if he was nothing. Richie flew against the wall and didn’t stand up again. Robbie could see he was still conscious, just too scared to do anything anymore. Richie was nine years old now and even though Nine had started putting Robbie in danger when he was even younger Richie wasn’t as though as Robbie.    
  
Robbie lost track of time and didn’t know for how long Nine had been beating him when he finally stopped.   
“Hmm, it seems it has become morning, Robbie. It’s time to go outside and exercise. We might finish our lesson later.” He picked up the still aching Robbie like he was a bag of potatoes. Then Nine turned towards Richie.   
“Come on, Richie, you’re coming too.” From his point over Nine’s shoulder Robbie could see Richie stand up from his place on the floor. He hadn’t moved the entire time and tear tracks were visible on his cheeks. He had seen everything. Robbie managed to catch his eyes and mouthed ‘don’t tell anyone’. Richie nodded silently in response and followed Nine and Robbie out of the room and the building.   
“Say goodbye, Robbie. Now that I know of this place there is no reason for you to return there.” He put Robbie down for a moment and stretched his arms. Robbie looked at what he had called home for the past few years and finally let out an ugly sob. He had cried throughout Nine’s ‘lesson’, but he hadn’t sobbed. The sobs soon descended into screams. It was unfair; the factory had been theirs, not Nine’s. Nine shouldn’t be allowed in there. As he screamed he just let everything go he had been holding inside. Nine was pushed off his feet, which was quite a feat, but the largest thing that happened while Robbie was screaming was something else. The factory started to lower into the ground. The place that had been their home sunk into the ground like it was quicksand. Nine’s eyes were wide in shock, but Robbie took little notice of it while he made the factory sink in the ground.   
“It is ours, you will never find it again!” Robbie screamed at Nine. Eventually only the two metal vats and some pipes were still visible. The world around Robbie grew darker by each blink until he passed out from exhaustion.   
  


* * *

  
Robbie groggily woke up several hours later. He could see this by the sun standing high in the sky. He was still sore and tired and the only outward sign he gave of being awake was the opening of his eyes. He could see the sky and the sports field as he was lying on his side. He quickly spotted Richie playing with the other kids. He was silent and jittery. He wasn’t afraid of the ball or the other kids, but he kept sending frightful glances at Nine. It didn’t take too long for Richie to check on Robbie to see if he was still asleep. He gasped and ran towards Robbie once he saw that his brother had finally woken up. Richie grabbed his older brother and hugged him tightly. No words passed his lips as he buried his face in Robbie’s shoulder. Robbie hugged him back, he didn’t quite have the energy yet to hug him tightly, but it was something.   
“Ah, I see you’re finally awake, Robbie.” Of course Nine had to ruin their little moment. Robbie looked up from his position to see Nine towering above them with a smile that was rather menacing to Robbie.   
“Are you ready to join your brother and the rest of us in our game or do you need to eat something first. You must be hungry.” He held out an apple towards Robbie. Robbie didn’t want to take it, but his stomach grumbled at that exact moment. While sending Nine a glare he took the apple and bit into it. He really hated the taste of that damn sportscandy. The rest of the kids continued playing their game while Robbie silently ate his apple. Both Nine and Richie stayed by his side, one of which he was grateful for their presence and the other he just wanted to disappear forever. The apple was finished too quickly in Robbie’s opinion. It might have been awful to eat the thing, but eating it meant that he didn’t have to exercise. The last thing Nine allowed him to do before he made Richie and Robbie join the game was to drink some water. Water was another thing that could go to hell according to Robbie. It was tasteless and stupid.   
  


* * *

  
It had been an exhausting day for both Robbie and Richie. Robbie had never done so much magic his entire life and Richie had been forced to play stupid games for hours. Once they reached their mother’s house they both crashed on a bed together. Their mother didn’t even notice. She was either not there at all or too drunk to greet her two sons she hadn’t properly seen for three years. Robbie stared up at the ceiling of the room as he fought against sleep. He needed to do something, he couldn’t let Nine get away with something again. He turned his head to his little brother. He couldn’t let Nine hurt his brother anymore. As long as both of them were here Richie could get hurt. He couldn’t get Nine to leave and he had to make sure Richie was safe. He let out a sob as he realised that the only way to keep his little brother safe was for him to leave LazyTown. He sat up in the bed and softly shook his brother awake. Nine would have left for his airship by now, which would give them the opportunity to sneak out of the house.   
“Richie, you need to wake up. The day isn’t over yet.” Richie blinked away and managed to make his yawn grumpy. He was obviously not happy about the fact that his brother had awoken him as he was really tired. This didn’t matter much though as he still followed his brother like he always did.    
  
Together they walked to the edge of the town. Here Robbie broke into one of the cars, he did not know or care whose it was. He looked at Richie as he almost cried. He knew he had to do this.   
“Climb in, Richie. You’re going to drive far far away from here. You will drive it just like you drove your cart, remember that?” Richie looked at him wide eyed and confused. Then he pointed at Robbie, eyes wide and questioning.   
“No, I can’t come too. I am the only one that can save LazyTown from Nine. They might not know they need saving and will see me as the villain, but it needs to be done. I will hide our home from Nine again and will every time he finds it. You saw how I was able to make it sink into the ground. I can hide it from Nine, but it just isn’t safe for you in the long run, do you understand?” Richie nodded and hugged his brother tightly. The hug both seemed to take forever and no time at all. Once they released each other again, both silently crying, Robbie helped Richie into the driver’s side of the car and buckled him up. Richie’s feet didn’t reach the pedals, but that didn’t matter as he wasn’t going to use them either way.   
“Just drive till the sun comes up… Bye Richie, please be happy for me and remember that you can’t tell anyone about what happened here.” With those words Robbie closed the door. Richie started the car and drove away, his older brother watching until he could no longer see him.   
  


* * *

  
His last stop of the night was the sunken factory. Well, he had decided that if he was going to play the part of the villain he might as well call it his lair. He looked around and wondered where he could move it to. He had already concluded that a lot of movement was going to drain him too much. He was pretty tired already, so he would be knocked out within a few meters. Also, Nine would still be able to see the place from his airship wherever Robbie moved it to. So, he would have to make it impossible to see from the airship. He thought for a moment.   
“What if I make it look like something else? I can make myself look like something else if I put on a disguise. I will just have to disguise the whole place. Well, the parts that are still above the ground.” He knocked on a pipe that was still sticking out of the ground which seemed like an entrance to him. He didn’t really know how, but during his enraged sinking of the place he managed to make sure there was a way to get in.    
“Probably because I am a genius.” He was still talking out loud. He had so gotten used to sharing his thoughts with Richie that, although he was no longer there, he still talked to his little brother. Robbie didn’t allow his mind to think too much about that. His brother leaving was still too fresh and he had too many things to do that night. He could simply not afford to spend any time crying.   
“But how could I hide it? I mean, I guess the only thing logical to be here is a field as that is what is surrounding most of the place, but how do I do that?” He thought deeply for a while before the answer sprung to mind. The building had been standing not too far away from a road and what stood occasionally next to roads?   
“A billboard! I will build giant billboards to hide this place from LazyTown and the airship. I will paint it to look like fields and then my magic will make everyone believe they actually are fields.” With a look on his face that was almost a grin he set to work.


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, more violence

The three years following Richie’s departure from LazyTown were some of the hardest for Robbie. He was getting more successful with his plans, but he was really lonely. The people in town came to dislike him more as sometimes his disguises fell and they discovered that Robbie was behind some of the plans meant to send Nine away. Robbie didn’t mind too much though, he had embraced the position of villain. 

The car he had sent Richie away in had been discovered a couple of towns away, but the person who had stolen it was never found. Robbie saw this as a minor success as it meant Richie had been able to get away. 

Robbie had been unable to sleep in their bed though, as it had been theirs and every time he lay down in it images of Nine standing in the room appeared. Thus, Robbie had taken to sleeping in the orange fluffy chair in the main room. His fears were just fears though as Nine had been unable to locate Robbie’s lair again. Robbie never allowed himself to wonder if he could have allowed Richie to stay. He probably wouldn’t have been able to get enough food for the two of them as Robbie had been able to get their father’s check less often. Nine had seen the pattern and was trying to make use of it. 

Robbie had added some more magic to his book of tricks. He was now able to instantly change his clothes and to teleport. He also had made a very useful new invention. It was a periscope with which he could look around the entire town from his lair. He had recently spent over a week preparing his next plan to get Nine out of town. It was going to big and a little bit explosive, but Robbie always reasoned that it would be worth it if it worked.

 

* * *

The next plan was actually quite simple, but it required Robbie to build a functioning canon that could shoot bowling balls. It wasn’t the most graceful of attempts, but it was something. Robbie had abandoned being subtle a while ago. If Robbie shot the airship out of the sky it would be at least a major setback for Nine. Robbie wasn’t sure if it would make Nine leave forever, but it was a beginning. 

He had looked through his periscope to see that no one was in the park before he poofed himself and the canon to it. His clothing should make everyone believe he worked in a circus. He really just needed them to ignore him to set up the canon, after that he could go away again and watch the spectacle from a safe distance. 

No one turned up in the park while he was setting up; it was pretty early after all. Robbie set the timer and walked away. The canon would continuously shoot bowling balls until someone turned it off. The timer would give Robbie enough time to move away from the canon and hopefully safe.

Well, here goes nothing. Robbie watches the timer go off and the first bowling ball shooting in the direction of the airship with a small smile on his face. His fingers were in his ears as it made quite some noise. His small smile turned into a full grin when a ball hit the airship full on. It didn’t take it out of the air yet, but it looked slightly damaged and it shook a lot. This was going well for now, he wondered how long it was going to take for anyone to find the canon and figure out how to turn it off, but Robbie jumped around in glee and enjoyed the show for as long as he could.

Robbie hadn’t thought he would be found before the canon. At this point the canon had also missed the airship a couple of times, the balls landing in LazyTown. Honestly, Robbie had thought Nine would have been too busy saving people from the falling balls to find him and that one of the brats that followed him around would have turned off the canon. 

This was why Robbie was completely thrown off when he was suddenly hit from behind by a big plank of wood. Over the years Robbie had learnt how to quickly stand up, this wasn’t the first time Nine had literally knocked him off his feet. He ignored the pain and readied himself to dodge the next hit whilst simultaneously trying to back away. He didn’t want to show Nine that he could teleport; he would only use that away from prying eyes or in emergencies. 

Robbie heard a few shouts from the town as he dodged some of the attempt hits and got hit a few times. That was odd, Nine’s crystal wasn’t going off. Was it possible that it was no longer working right? He had to try this theory. If he got Nine to the centre of town and people got hurt while his crystal didn’t make a noise, it would prove to everyone that the crystal didn’t work. Who wanted a hero that didn’t know when you were in danger and in need of saving? With this new plan in mind he set to work.

It had been surprisingly easy for Robbie to lead Nine to the centre of town. Not only did they now get to see Nine beat up someone in pure rage, they would also notice his dysfunctional crystal. It hadn’t gone off once, but Robbie had seen people with scrapes and bruises from flying debris. The canon had been stopped though, most of the debris was coming from Nine and Robbie at this point. Robbie had also been successful with shooting the airship out of the sky. He had been able to look up at one point and didn’t spot it anywhere. 

Robbie was trapped with a wall behind his back when he noticed something odd. Robbie saw that Nine was putting magic behind his next hit. He had never done that before and Robbie really didn’t want to know how it would feel to be hit by that. He was low to the ground and Nine was hitting him from above. It seemed he was going to have to teleport, he would wait for the last moment though, maybe not as many people would see him do it. 

This whole thinking process took less than a second and Robbie managed to disappear just before Nine hit him. He reappeared on the other side of the wall less than a second later. He was sitting on the ground in a cloud of smoke. It seemed Nine had done some serious damage to the wall. He quickly backed away, this was his moment to make the whole town turn against Nine.

“Did you all see that?!” He shouted as loud as he could at the people around him. Beside his voice there was only silence. Even Nine was in shock as he finally realised where he was. Or he was just really surprised about Robbie’s ability to teleport, Robbie couldn’t read minds.

“He hit me repeatedly, though I never hit back! You call that a hero? Also, look at yourselves.” He pointed at the person nearest to him.

“You are covered in scratches and bruises, but did he stop to save you? No, he was too busy hitting me.” He forced tears to appear in his eyes, he wasn’t too bad of an actor after all. Not that he had to act too much, he was really hurting a lot.

“Did you even hear or see his crystal go off? It was completely silent while you were all in danger. He is no more a hero than you and me!” The people looked at themselves and Nine in complete shock. Nine himself was looking at the people and his crystal in complete disbelieve as it dawned upon him what had happened. Robbie turned back to Nine and straightened himself.

“I think you should leave.” Even Robbie was surprised as Nine deflated. His stance went from prideful and confident to defeated. For once, Nine did as Robbie said. Without a word and with his head hanging low he left town.

 

* * *

 

 

 

The days after Nine left weren’t as euphoric as Robbie had hoped they would be. The town was a mess. The bowling balls had done some serious damage around town, one of the bridge railings had partially been blown of, there were a lot of potholes, and quite some roofs were damaged. A lot of people needed medical help as well, but none as much as Robbie’s mother. No one knew how exactly she was hit, as she had been alone, but she had been rendered into a coma. Robbie didn’t feel too much about that, she hadn’t been a large part of his life. She had never been a loving mother to him. So his mother getting hurt didn’t bother him all that much. What did bother him was that child services and his father turning up.

“Father, you haven’t seen me in more than ten years! You really think I want to live with you?” He was pretty much snarling at his father. The only thing he had ever needed from him was money. It was far too late for support and father-son bonding.

“My boy, calm down. I am here to see if you’re well looked after. I can’t have my son ending in a ditch. Also, where is Richard?” Robbie rolled his eyes, it was a bit late for his father to ask after his wellbeing. Did he really think that his mother had been looking after him? At least his father had stopped making Robbie call him either sir or father in every sentence. He only shrugs in response.

“I don’t know, he hasn’t been here for a while.” His father looked at him in surprise. That look was probably the first honest expression his father had shown all day.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I haven’t seen him in three years.” His father became even more bewildered. Robbie would have smiled if he wasn’t so annoyed.

“Why was I never told that he had gone missing?” Oh, now he started to look angry. Robbie guessed that his father had been pissed from the very beginning, but now it was also showing on his face.

“I guess mother never reporting him as such.” He shrugged again. She had probably not told anyone that Robbie hadn’t been living with her for six years. A smile started to form in the corners of Robbie’s mouth. Oh, he had just thought of a way for his dad to leave him alone.

“If you leave me be on my own, I won’t tell anyone you didn’t know that your own son had been missing for the past three years. Or that your wife never paid for her children to go to school, claiming she home-schooled them. By the way, she didn’t. All that money you sent here went to booze and gambling. If you don’t want the world to know what happened to your own sons right beneath your nose you will do what I say. You don’t want your career to be tainted by such a scandal, do you?” He was smirking now as he could see the sweat starting to form on his father’s forehead. Nothing meant more to his father than his reputation.

It didn’t take long for the two to reach a deal. Robbie would be allowed to continue to live on his own and his father would help him to set up his own business. Robbie knew that he could sell his inventions and he didn’t need to put a lot more pressure on his father for him to confess about the magic. Now he could sell his inventions to normal and magical folk. This way he would no longer have to rely on checks from his father. The sooner he could cut all ties the better. His father would be allowed to report Richie as missing and Robbie wouldn’t correct him on when he went missing. Not that it was going to be easy to locate him, there were absolutely no pictures of his younger brother.

During this whole conversation Glanni had been standing in the background. He had a very big grin on his face while he inspected all of the damage done by the bowling balls. Robbie hadn’t seen him in years, but it was very obvious the two were related. Glanni and Robbie looked alike a lot. Once their father had walked away to do some business Glanni approached his little brother and put his arm around his shoulders. Robbie flinched a little at that and stayed stiff as his brother smirked at him.

“You did this, didn’t you?” Robbie gulped, how did he know? He had gotten rid of all the evidence shortly after Nine left and people stopped worrying about him.

“Don’t worry about me, I won’t tell anyone. In fact, I admire your work.” He laughed. Glanni was giving Robbie the creeps. He had never intended to destroy so much of the town, but Glanni seemed to love the damage he had done.

“Next time, make sure you can make a profit from it, brother dearest.” Both of them looked up as their father called for Glanni. The older one of the two kissed the other’s cheek before releasing him. With another pat on the shoulder he strutted off.

“See you sometime! And look after yourself!” Robbie at this point was pretty sure that Glanni hadn’t become the kind of man their father had wanted. The Glæpur family was going to take a whole different route with Glanni. Robbie shook his head, it didn’t matter to him. What mattered was that the town was his again. Everyone could be lazy and eat candy, it would be great. With a manic grin on his face he walked towards his lair. Just before he entered through the chute he spoke as to respond to Glanni, but this time the words were happy instead of sad. “I will always be okay!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With special thanks to Lu for all their love and support! Up to part two of the series~ Also this is the outline of our notes file, have fun: https://imgur.com/8zrifzz


End file.
